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Pretty Standard Thursday
Feb. 9th, 2023 11:45 pmNothing too exciting to report about today, I must admit -- even the weather was unremarkable, if a BIT warmer than usual for February. Tomorrow is supposed to be MUCH warmer than usual -- we shall see! In the meantime --
Work – A rather quiet day, honestly! Only a few phone calls, and only one of those was credit-card-related. (Though, naturally, it came in during lunch. . .) I spent most of my day doing obituaries and helping out with some returned mail (tax letters that needed to be sent on to new addresses, mostly). *shrug* I will take it over an absurdly busy mess!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – more time on the bike, more time with Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark – “The Astor Gambit!” To my surprise, neither of my predictions – Edvard breaking into a rant about how much he hates Astor in the middle of his interview with Peggy OR Astor himself coming in and not recognizing Edvard – came to pass! Edvard JUST managed to hold it together for answering questions about how he thought the workplace culture of the Astor corporation was just soooo great and how his biggest flaw was “caring too much” about the Astor products he’d put out in the world. . .
And then Astor came in and clocked who “Cornelius Gorey” was immediately. XD He chose to be Affably Evil at first, quietly dismissing Peggy so he and Edvard could just chat, praising his work on the Lanthorn Box, and saying how WONDERFUL it was that Edvard had decided to let bygones be bygones and come work for him. Edvard went along with this veneer of civility in the hopes of getting the factory tour, saying what was a little intellectual property theft, he needs the cash – but then, right before Astor was going to bring him out for a look around, he casually mentioned that the last time he’d heard Edvard’s name was at Cab-Con. . .you know, where their new hydraulic spoke for taxis caught fire. Edvard refused to confirm he was at Cab-Con and said that Astor couldn’t prove it. . .
And so Astor and his security goon brought him up to the room of his personal private investigator, Roth! The guy who was sitting behind poor Wester at the pub, and who was a weaselly dude in a bad suit who looked ready to do some pretty horrible things to Edvard. Astor said that Roth would definitely get the truth out of him, and left him locked in there with the man. . .
Cut back to Zillah, who was choking out the guard who’d tried leaping at her from the cubicle in the bathroom with her thighs. Luke allowed this because Rule Of Funny. XD He did NOT allow her a closet to hide both this guard and his unconscious friend (whom Zillah had smashed into a sink, leading to a burst pipe) in – the cleaning “closet” was more like a cupboard – so Zillah waded out of the flooded bathroom with a “slippery floor” sign and just put it outside the door. XD Just in time to see Astor and his goon emerge from Roth’s room! They fortunately didn’t notice her, and Zillah was able to use her lab coat as enough of a disguise to slip past them. She DID overhear them talking about how glad Astor would be to get rid of that particular pain in his side, and clocked they were talking about Edvard, but given that she wasn’t entirely sure where Edvard WAS and if she could help (even if she suspected he was being tortured), she decided to stick to their plan and made it up the stairs to the Security floor, zeroing in on the Archives door.
Behind which someone was humming! Rather tunelessly, so Zillah decided she could probably take them in a fight and stepped inside. Cue her meeting Alice the archivist, and very awkwardly claiming that it was her first day and that she herself was a new archivist, it was her passion. Alice was relieved to have a little help and put her to work re-alphabetizing a crate of files that had spilled before – the A crate, in fact. Zillah pretended to be enthusiastic, but once Alice was back to doing her own work and humming again, she tried to sneak around and get the D crate (for Dimmer Sisters) instead –
Only to overbalance it on a poor roll and send the papers flying, getting Alice’s attention. She managed to cover by saying she found a D file in the A crate and that she was sorry – Alice told her it was fine. . .and that she’d get Peter up to help them. Cue her going over to the intercom –
And Zillah choking her out. Not with her thighs again, though Jane was tempted. XD Unfortunately, her highest result on the roll was a four, which meant a success with a complication – Alice did indeed go down to her massive biceps, but she managed to press the button on the intercom, getting the attention of Peter. Zillah scrambled to cover, claiming she was Alice and just testing the intercom, it had been sounding funny earlier – Peter initially thought that she was just trying to get him to go out with her again, but soon decided something was up and decided to head upstairs, leaving Zillah to frantically start rifling through the D files she’d spilled.
Cut back to Edvard, trapped in a room with Roth. Roth went over and grabbed Edvard’s personal file to show him, commenting on how weird it is that there’s a big gap in his record starting a few weeks ago. . .and cue Edvard ticking off a box of load to use the pretense of wanting a smoke to pull out a tiny blowpipe and dart and drug the guy. XD Again, though, the roll was a “success with a complication” at a five, and while Edvard managed to catch the guy before he made a loud bang on the ground, he DID hit his head against the table and hurt himself. Edvard was – unsympathetic, to say the least. XD In fact, he was much more interested in all the files and took a quick root around – and a SIX on that roll meant that he found quite a few letters and designs and whatnot proving that Astor is a rotten ideas thief! He tucked those away in his jacket, got the key off Roth, left the room and locked it from the outside, then hurried up to Security!
Where he found a wet, bloody, disheveled Zillah in the Archives room pawing through papers with an unconscious woman next to her. Edvard quickly clocked Zillah had had a time of it. XD He joined her in the hunt for the Dimmer Sisters lock blueprint, and after a few minutes they managed to locate it! However, Edvard decided that, rather than straight-up take it, he should make a copy so they don’t give the game away too early. Luke thought that was smart and gave Edvard the chance to copy the drawing – though it was so intricate that it took him a little while. Zillah barricaded the door with a few more crate filing cabinets to buy them more time and privacy – which was good, because near the end of Edvard’s sketching, Peter showed up! Zillah quickly pretended to be a heartbroken Alice, leading to Peter admitting that he does have feelings for her, but he didn’t want to admit it, especially because she was previously seeing Benny, and. . .well, Zillah is definitely on Team Palice now. XD She managed to get him to go away by saying that she did want them to be together, but she needed time to think and feel her feelings, and Peter slunk off. Edvard finished up his sketch, and after some argument about what to do about Alice (Zillah was aware the woman had seen her face, but also did NOT want to screw around with her head because she felt bad, especially about the thing with Peter), it was decided they should just get out through the window.
Small problem, though – while Edvard DOES have climbing gear on him, the window happens to overlook what is essentially a small cliff right above the river. Meaning that climbing out from this direction is gonna be tricky. I left it with Zillah using a flashback to try and teach Edvard how to swan dive. XD Given there’s only about ten or so minutes left, I suspect this is going to work. . .but depending on the stress cost, this might leave poor Zillah officially traumatized. . .we’ll find out!
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland:” Check – and I have officially wrapped up Chapter Three! Yes, Chapter THREE – look, you’ve read the first one at this point, you know how long they are. XD But yes, Alice has reconnected with Victor, and after a little mutual reflection on how lonely they were when they were younger and how Alice just appreciates having a friendly face to come home to now, they’re ending out the night with Victor showing Alice what his bug-bots can do. :) A nice little break before Alice finds Milton’s torn-apart body and goes up against the Brotherhood of the Ninth Circle in Chapter Four!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Half-check – getting “The Astor Gambit” summed up and writing on “Londerland Bloodlines” took longer than expected, so I forewent watching Call Me Kevin in favor of some shorter stuff –
A) First up, the latest list video from OXtra – “7 Minibosses Harder Than Most Bosses in Any Game!” Yes, Luke and Ellen took us through all the minibosses that really should have been classed as regular bosses. And hell, were once mistaken for a regular boss by the team – the Marauder from Doom Eternal was previously listed on a video about boss fights they hated, only for them to realize he’s technically only a MINI-boss – one that relies on careful timing and can send ghost dogs to eat you if you hit his shield. Damn. Other entries included Anti-Sora from Kingdom Hearts (a shadow-person who can split himself into multiple versions and turn into a flat shadow on the floor to zip around – and will go INVISIBLE in the later stages of the fight), the Shark Demon from Bloodborne’s Old Hunters DLC (or should we say demons, as once you get the first down to half-health, a second joins the fight), and the Lynell from The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (which have 5,000 hit points apiece – which is more than the FINAL BOSS can have if you can get the Divine Beasts to strike an early blow on him). Basically, these minibosses really deserve a promotion to FULL boss. If we must fight them, can we at least get a cool cutscene first?
B) And then it was time for a quick trip to the Subs for GrayStillPlays and “Which Ramps Give You The Longest Jump in GTA 5? #shorts” Which was actually a short featuring a board I’d seen before – the “element ramps” where Gray had to do things like do a fire loop-de-loop and wall-ride on wind turbines. XD So yeah, proof that these videos are clips taken from full-length YouTube vids – just usually I think he’s doing ones non-members don’t get to see. Still, always fun to get a “best of” reel of a video from him – that was a good board. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – three ask replies over on Valice Multiverse, easy-peasy. AND I got my request for my friend Marie’s gift fic for her upcoming birthday, so I’ll be ready to work on that on Saturday, yay! :)
Not too shabby, no. And now it is time to go to bed and see what happens on Friday. And be weirded out that it's Friday already, because it is very hard to keep track of time properly when you're coming off a week and a bit of COVID. :p Just feels like it should be earlier in the week. . .but I'm not gonna say NO to it being the weekend already. *waves* Night all!
Work – A rather quiet day, honestly! Only a few phone calls, and only one of those was credit-card-related. (Though, naturally, it came in during lunch. . .) I spent most of my day doing obituaries and helping out with some returned mail (tax letters that needed to be sent on to new addresses, mostly). *shrug* I will take it over an absurdly busy mess!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – more time on the bike, more time with Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark – “The Astor Gambit!” To my surprise, neither of my predictions – Edvard breaking into a rant about how much he hates Astor in the middle of his interview with Peggy OR Astor himself coming in and not recognizing Edvard – came to pass! Edvard JUST managed to hold it together for answering questions about how he thought the workplace culture of the Astor corporation was just soooo great and how his biggest flaw was “caring too much” about the Astor products he’d put out in the world. . .
And then Astor came in and clocked who “Cornelius Gorey” was immediately. XD He chose to be Affably Evil at first, quietly dismissing Peggy so he and Edvard could just chat, praising his work on the Lanthorn Box, and saying how WONDERFUL it was that Edvard had decided to let bygones be bygones and come work for him. Edvard went along with this veneer of civility in the hopes of getting the factory tour, saying what was a little intellectual property theft, he needs the cash – but then, right before Astor was going to bring him out for a look around, he casually mentioned that the last time he’d heard Edvard’s name was at Cab-Con. . .you know, where their new hydraulic spoke for taxis caught fire. Edvard refused to confirm he was at Cab-Con and said that Astor couldn’t prove it. . .
And so Astor and his security goon brought him up to the room of his personal private investigator, Roth! The guy who was sitting behind poor Wester at the pub, and who was a weaselly dude in a bad suit who looked ready to do some pretty horrible things to Edvard. Astor said that Roth would definitely get the truth out of him, and left him locked in there with the man. . .
Cut back to Zillah, who was choking out the guard who’d tried leaping at her from the cubicle in the bathroom with her thighs. Luke allowed this because Rule Of Funny. XD He did NOT allow her a closet to hide both this guard and his unconscious friend (whom Zillah had smashed into a sink, leading to a burst pipe) in – the cleaning “closet” was more like a cupboard – so Zillah waded out of the flooded bathroom with a “slippery floor” sign and just put it outside the door. XD Just in time to see Astor and his goon emerge from Roth’s room! They fortunately didn’t notice her, and Zillah was able to use her lab coat as enough of a disguise to slip past them. She DID overhear them talking about how glad Astor would be to get rid of that particular pain in his side, and clocked they were talking about Edvard, but given that she wasn’t entirely sure where Edvard WAS and if she could help (even if she suspected he was being tortured), she decided to stick to their plan and made it up the stairs to the Security floor, zeroing in on the Archives door.
Behind which someone was humming! Rather tunelessly, so Zillah decided she could probably take them in a fight and stepped inside. Cue her meeting Alice the archivist, and very awkwardly claiming that it was her first day and that she herself was a new archivist, it was her passion. Alice was relieved to have a little help and put her to work re-alphabetizing a crate of files that had spilled before – the A crate, in fact. Zillah pretended to be enthusiastic, but once Alice was back to doing her own work and humming again, she tried to sneak around and get the D crate (for Dimmer Sisters) instead –
Only to overbalance it on a poor roll and send the papers flying, getting Alice’s attention. She managed to cover by saying she found a D file in the A crate and that she was sorry – Alice told her it was fine. . .and that she’d get Peter up to help them. Cue her going over to the intercom –
And Zillah choking her out. Not with her thighs again, though Jane was tempted. XD Unfortunately, her highest result on the roll was a four, which meant a success with a complication – Alice did indeed go down to her massive biceps, but she managed to press the button on the intercom, getting the attention of Peter. Zillah scrambled to cover, claiming she was Alice and just testing the intercom, it had been sounding funny earlier – Peter initially thought that she was just trying to get him to go out with her again, but soon decided something was up and decided to head upstairs, leaving Zillah to frantically start rifling through the D files she’d spilled.
Cut back to Edvard, trapped in a room with Roth. Roth went over and grabbed Edvard’s personal file to show him, commenting on how weird it is that there’s a big gap in his record starting a few weeks ago. . .and cue Edvard ticking off a box of load to use the pretense of wanting a smoke to pull out a tiny blowpipe and dart and drug the guy. XD Again, though, the roll was a “success with a complication” at a five, and while Edvard managed to catch the guy before he made a loud bang on the ground, he DID hit his head against the table and hurt himself. Edvard was – unsympathetic, to say the least. XD In fact, he was much more interested in all the files and took a quick root around – and a SIX on that roll meant that he found quite a few letters and designs and whatnot proving that Astor is a rotten ideas thief! He tucked those away in his jacket, got the key off Roth, left the room and locked it from the outside, then hurried up to Security!
Where he found a wet, bloody, disheveled Zillah in the Archives room pawing through papers with an unconscious woman next to her. Edvard quickly clocked Zillah had had a time of it. XD He joined her in the hunt for the Dimmer Sisters lock blueprint, and after a few minutes they managed to locate it! However, Edvard decided that, rather than straight-up take it, he should make a copy so they don’t give the game away too early. Luke thought that was smart and gave Edvard the chance to copy the drawing – though it was so intricate that it took him a little while. Zillah barricaded the door with a few more crate filing cabinets to buy them more time and privacy – which was good, because near the end of Edvard’s sketching, Peter showed up! Zillah quickly pretended to be a heartbroken Alice, leading to Peter admitting that he does have feelings for her, but he didn’t want to admit it, especially because she was previously seeing Benny, and. . .well, Zillah is definitely on Team Palice now. XD She managed to get him to go away by saying that she did want them to be together, but she needed time to think and feel her feelings, and Peter slunk off. Edvard finished up his sketch, and after some argument about what to do about Alice (Zillah was aware the woman had seen her face, but also did NOT want to screw around with her head because she felt bad, especially about the thing with Peter), it was decided they should just get out through the window.
Small problem, though – while Edvard DOES have climbing gear on him, the window happens to overlook what is essentially a small cliff right above the river. Meaning that climbing out from this direction is gonna be tricky. I left it with Zillah using a flashback to try and teach Edvard how to swan dive. XD Given there’s only about ten or so minutes left, I suspect this is going to work. . .but depending on the stress cost, this might leave poor Zillah officially traumatized. . .we’ll find out!
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland:” Check – and I have officially wrapped up Chapter Three! Yes, Chapter THREE – look, you’ve read the first one at this point, you know how long they are. XD But yes, Alice has reconnected with Victor, and after a little mutual reflection on how lonely they were when they were younger and how Alice just appreciates having a friendly face to come home to now, they’re ending out the night with Victor showing Alice what his bug-bots can do. :) A nice little break before Alice finds Milton’s torn-apart body and goes up against the Brotherhood of the Ninth Circle in Chapter Four!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Half-check – getting “The Astor Gambit” summed up and writing on “Londerland Bloodlines” took longer than expected, so I forewent watching Call Me Kevin in favor of some shorter stuff –
A) First up, the latest list video from OXtra – “7 Minibosses Harder Than Most Bosses in Any Game!” Yes, Luke and Ellen took us through all the minibosses that really should have been classed as regular bosses. And hell, were once mistaken for a regular boss by the team – the Marauder from Doom Eternal was previously listed on a video about boss fights they hated, only for them to realize he’s technically only a MINI-boss – one that relies on careful timing and can send ghost dogs to eat you if you hit his shield. Damn. Other entries included Anti-Sora from Kingdom Hearts (a shadow-person who can split himself into multiple versions and turn into a flat shadow on the floor to zip around – and will go INVISIBLE in the later stages of the fight), the Shark Demon from Bloodborne’s Old Hunters DLC (or should we say demons, as once you get the first down to half-health, a second joins the fight), and the Lynell from The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (which have 5,000 hit points apiece – which is more than the FINAL BOSS can have if you can get the Divine Beasts to strike an early blow on him). Basically, these minibosses really deserve a promotion to FULL boss. If we must fight them, can we at least get a cool cutscene first?
B) And then it was time for a quick trip to the Subs for GrayStillPlays and “Which Ramps Give You The Longest Jump in GTA 5? #shorts” Which was actually a short featuring a board I’d seen before – the “element ramps” where Gray had to do things like do a fire loop-de-loop and wall-ride on wind turbines. XD So yeah, proof that these videos are clips taken from full-length YouTube vids – just usually I think he’s doing ones non-members don’t get to see. Still, always fun to get a “best of” reel of a video from him – that was a good board. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – three ask replies over on Valice Multiverse, easy-peasy. AND I got my request for my friend Marie’s gift fic for her upcoming birthday, so I’ll be ready to work on that on Saturday, yay! :)
Not too shabby, no. And now it is time to go to bed and see what happens on Friday. And be weirded out that it's Friday already, because it is very hard to keep track of time properly when you're coming off a week and a bit of COVID. :p Just feels like it should be earlier in the week. . .but I'm not gonna say NO to it being the weekend already. *waves* Night all!
